Audio gear is state of the art

Steven Nugent loves music. He has had a passion for music all his life. He only had one problem with his passion:

"I discovered I had limited talent," he said.

So his life took a different direction. He became an electronic engineer, keeping stereo systems as a hobby and substitute for creating his own music.

His passion would not let go, and finally it overtook him. After 16 years of working for Intel Corporation, his knowledge of electronics and stereos found a unique marriage. Out of this union, Empirical Audio was born, and world-class stereos were created to satisfy even the most jaded of audiophiles.

To own a system from Empirical Audio requires a commitment to the highest levels of audiophilia and a balance sheet that would astound most investment bankers.

At university Nugent was one of the few students who had a serious stereo in the dorm, and he was constantly trying to make it better. Nugent would purchase components and try to upgrade his system. It was an ongoing process that had as many steps backward as it did forward. Much of what he purchased resulted in no difference or even downgrading of his system, despite all the hype.

With his background in electronics, Nugent began to investigate the weaknesses in stereos and found that cables could make a big difference.

Nugent then ordered the finest cables that money could buy and was disappointed. They performed not much better than the stock cables he had been using.

So Nugent began his foray into the high-end audio market by designing and building quality cabling.

He made breakthrough after breakthrough in cable design by using his experience in the computer field. He used computer modeling to determine if changes would work without having to build a cable and test it to find out. He was very successful, and many upper-end stereo cables are still made to his patents.

However, Nugent was not satisfied with the cabling business, finding it so trendy and fad-filled that he was having to make tiny tweaks every six months to keep the business competitive. He wanted to be more cutting edge and build for permanence and quality, so he backed off on the cable side of the business and became what is known as a "modder" - as in "modify."

As a modder, Nugent would purchase quality stereos and make modifications to remove compromises made for the sake of production simplicity or cost savings. At times, he would be left with little more than the case in which all the components originally rested. He would create his own circuit boards with tubes and transistors, looking the world over for tubes that were created during the golden years of tube-based electronics.

Nugent was able to combine his engineering knowledge of power delivery, signal transmission, circuit analysis and cable design to deliver significant audible improvements. He is able to improve nearly any component, including crossovers and even PCI cards. Nugent found he was uniquely qualified to reverse-engineer component designs and make them better.

He now does business with clients from all over the world, including international manufacturers of high-end stereos.

Typical consumer products are designed to a "price-point," which results in compromises and trade-offs that ultimately impact the quality of the sound. He says, "All of these compromises can be reversed with appropriate mods."

Nugent explained, "We have helped many customers reach their personal audio nirvana and then we never hear from them again, even on the discussion groups."

Audio nirvana does come at a price. Entry level systems are priced at $8,000 to $10,000 and high-end stereos can be in the $100,000 range. But Nugent says that all his systems are world class in sound quality regardless of the price.

"I wouldn't be interested in selling anything less than world class," he said.

For more information visit http://www.empiricalaudio.com.